We have been spending quite a lot of time at Vincennes lately, where we came across a little oddity in the archives' collection: a number of files devoted to individual cases among the détenus.

At the start 1803, most unusually, Britain and France were not at war. Napoléon was busy taking over Europe with some pretty fancy military strategies, which did nothing to intimidate those proud cross-channel tourists, each visiting and sneering at the other's country and considering that activity the acquisition or extension of a cultural education. Then, each side stole ships and cargo belonging to the other and, from the 18th of May, Britain and France were once again at war.

On the 23rd of May, 1803 Napoléon signed an edict that was quickly carried out "to detain every male Briton between the ages of 18 and 60 then on French soil, whether 'service' or 'civilian'. No exceptions were made."* Actually, it was simpler and went further than that: every Briton in France or in territory held by France was arrested and interned. This included women and children (as listed in the document shown above), even British spouses of French citizens. These people were at first referred to as "hostages" and later as detainees, or détenus. In some rare cases, they were allowed to return home or -- if they had manufacturing skills -- to go on a sort of work-release, but the majority remained in camps until they died or until 1815 or so, after it all was finally up with the Corsican.

Of the many thousand détenus, only about one thousand seemed to have been interesting or vocal enough to have merited a specific file. Some of these files contain a single document, others as many as sixty, and all tell a story.

John Cobham Pennie begged for his liberty because of failing health

James Payne had worked in the Imperial library. He died in France and his detained widow struggled to gain his estate.

Maria Bowater was the widow of Admiral de Graham, who had served Louis XVI and was beheaded for it, as was her son. She had returned to France during a moment of peace to settle her affairs, and was detained.

John Synge Blount, doctor, for some reason thought his friendship with the actor Kemble would gain his release.

Richard Gutch, hatmaker, hoped that his skill would gain him permission to work outside of prison.

John Goldworth Alger tells the tale with some spirit: Download Napoleon's British Visitors and Captives 1801-1815 (Beware! Very long to download as it is the entire book.) He gives a list of detainees, but it is certainly not exhaustive. No one knows just how many there were, how many died in France, how many married and stayed on, how many children were born in captivity.

Comments

We have been spending quite a lot of time at Vincennes lately, where we came across a little oddity in the archives' collection: a number of files devoted to individual cases among the détenus.

At the start 1803, most unusually, Britain and France were not at war. Napoléon was busy taking over Europe with some pretty fancy military strategies, which did nothing to intimidate those proud cross-channel tourists, each visiting and sneering at the other's country and considering that activity the acquisition or extension of a cultural education. Then, each side stole ships and cargo belonging to the other and, from the 18th of May, Britain and France were once again at war.

On the 23rd of May, 1803 Napoléon signed an edict that was quickly carried out "to detain every male Briton between the ages of 18 and 60 then on French soil, whether 'service' or 'civilian'. No exceptions were made."* Actually, it was simpler and went further than that: every Briton in France or in territory held by France was arrested and interned. This included women and children (as listed in the document shown above), even British spouses of French citizens. These people were at first referred to as "hostages" and later as detainees, or détenus. In some rare cases, they were allowed to return home or -- if they had manufacturing skills -- to go on a sort of work-release, but the majority remained in camps until they died or until 1815 or so, after it all was finally up with the Corsican.

Of the many thousand détenus, only about one thousand seemed to have been interesting or vocal enough to have merited a specific file. Some of these files contain a single document, others as many as sixty, and all tell a story.

John Cobham Pennie begged for his liberty because of failing health

James Payne had worked in the Imperial library. He died in France and his detained widow struggled to gain his estate.

Maria Bowater was the widow of Admiral de Graham, who had served Louis XVI and was beheaded for it, as was her son. She had returned to France during a moment of peace to settle her affairs, and was detained.

John Synge Blount, doctor, for some reason thought his friendship with the actor Kemble would gain his release.

Richard Gutch, hatmaker, hoped that his skill would gain him permission to work outside of prison.

John Goldworth Alger tells the tale with some spirit: Download Napoleon's British Visitors and Captives 1801-1815 (Beware! Very long to download as it is the entire book.) He gives a list of detainees, but it is certainly not exhaustive. No one knows just how many there were, how many died in France, how many married and stayed on, how many children were born in captivity.

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Websites of the Departmental Archives

(01) AinCapital: Bourg-en-Bresse.
Archives Numériques Départementales de l'Ain. Online: parish registers, civil registers, censuses. Wonderfully they also have put up the Tables de Succession, (lists of those who died and whether or not they left a will) and the Matricules, (military recruitment documents) for some communes. Being added in stages are the all-important notarial document registers.

(02) AisneCapital: Laon.
On a very nice site that works well: parish and civil registrations, land records and maps, and many images of historical and genealogical value. There is a nice section on genealogy to help one get started. Additionally, it is possible via a different search page to see all documentation relating to a particular commune.

(03) AllierCapital : Moulins
The parish and civil registrations for over 300 communes are now online and free. One must click an agreement form before access is allowed. Nice site.

(05) Hautes-Alpes Capital: Gap.
Online: parish and civil registers through 1916, marriage banns, ten-year indices. Incredibly helpful people when contacted by e-mail; they really go out of their way to help further one's research.

(08) Ardennes Capital: Charleville-Mézières. Online: the ten-year indices with a list of all communes, land records, parish registers and civil registers from the 16th century to 1890. Military conscription lists from 1867 to 1921, with a new index that can be searched by the conscript's name.

(09) AriègeCapital: Foix. Finally! Online: Parish and civil registrations from 1551 to 1892, with ten-year indices up to 1902, and military conscription lists from 1884 to 1918.

(10) AubeCapital: Troyes. Online: ten-year indices, post cards of various towns and villages, land records, parish and civil registrations from 1552 to 1915, military enlistment records, probate indices (tables des successions), census returns from 1820 to 1931. Additionally, the Fichier Chandon has about 8000 names and biographical notes on families of the region. Works in Progress: 1) a collaborative index to the names on the census returns; 2) a surname index to the registrations -- now pushing 600,000 names.

(11) AudeCapital: Carcassonne. Online: parish and civil registrations from 1547 to 1872 and some ten-year indices. Just up: military conscription lists.

(12) AveyronCapital: Rodez. Online: parish and civil registrations from the 16th to the end of the 19th century. There is a plan afoot to put notarial records -- not just indices -- online gratis. NEW: military recruitment lists from 1887 to 1921.

(13) Bouches-du-RhôneCapital: Marseille. Online: parish and civil registers, land records, censuses from 1836-1931, old post cards, military recruitment registers from 1872 to 1912. Probably the worst AD website of them all.

(14) CalvadosCapital: Caen. Online: parish and civil records and the ten-year indices and annual indices. Also some interesting pictures of the Normandy invasion.

(15) CantalCapital: Aurillac. Online: parish and civil registers, ten-year indices, censuses, alphabetic indices to military recruitment lists and the lists as well, photographs, and notarial records and Holocaust records that relate to Cantal. In 2010, the website won a prize for the way it is possible for users to index collaboratively the civil registrations.

(16) CharenteCapital: Angoulême. Online: census records for 1842 to 1872, land records, teachers' notebooks, church inventories, old post cards of local towns, villages and sites. Parish and civil registrations are now online. At long last, the charge has been dropped and the site is now free to use.

(17) Charente-MaritimeCapital: La Rochelle. Online: parish, Protestant and civil registers, post cards, photographs of the Second World War, notarial records and entry lists (répertoires), military recruitment lists from 1859 to 1921, admiralty records, employment contracts for those sent to America (engagés) from 1606 to 1758, and quite a lot more.

(18) CherCapital: Bourges. As with many, but not all, you must create an account. This will gain you access to parish and civil registrations, censuses, maps, military enlistment registers and indices to them. They have embarked on a big collaborative indexing project.

(19) CorrèzeCapital: Tulle. Online: ten-year indices from 1802 to 1902, parish and civil registrations for all communes from their beginnings to 1902, EXCEPT for Brive-la-Gaillarde (see their own website: http://archives.brive.fr), census returns from 1906 to 1936, military recruitment lists, alphabetic death and will registrations to 1940, maps.

(2A) Corse-du-SudCapital: Ajaccio. All new! Online: Parish and civil registrations from 1548 to 1914, probate tables, land records and census returns. Very nice.

(23) CreuseCapital: Guéret. New website! Online: Parish and civil registrations, maps, posters from the Second World War, census returns, military recruitment lists, and -- very nice -- alphabetic indices to inheritances.

(26) DrômeCapital: Valence. Online: parish registers, ten-year indices, civil registers up to 1852, with some up to 1916, notarial archives, land records, military recruitment lists from 1865 to 1921, census returns from 1790 to 1911; also many finding aids. NEW: Protestant registers with indices!

(29) FinistèreCapital: Quimper. Online: Maps, parish and civil registrations census returns, military recruitment lists from 1860-1913. Parish registrations from 1772 to 1909 have been indexed on FamilySearch. NEW: local maps with place names in Breton.

(30) GardCapital: Nîmes. At last! Gard has its own website, previously having relied heavily upon TéléArchives at Brozer.fr which have the municipal archives of Nîmes and a large number of archives for Gard. On Gard's own website at the moment there are only the military recruitment lists from 1887 to 1915. Still, a fine beginning!

(31) Haute-GaronneCapital: Toulouse. Online: Land records, parish and civil registers, military recruitment lists, marriage contracts from Toulouse from 1501 to 1739, censuses, insinuations from 1693 to 1790. The site is maddening in that images cannot be adjusted; there is no possibility to zoom in or out. The 1872 and 1886 census returns for Toulouse are being indexed by FamilySearch. Updates are ongoing and the site is improving.

(32) Gers Capital: Auch. Online: Finding aids, historic maps, military conscription lists and census returns. Parish and civil registrations are not expected to be online before late 2015.

(33) GirondeCapital: Bordeaux. Online: Transcriptions of some parish registers, parish and civil registers and ten-year indices, maps, passport applications from 1800 to 1889, military recruitment lists from 1867 to 1921, register of deeds, wills, etc., 182 registers of the Admiralty of Guyenne, crew and passenger lists of departing vessels from 1683 to 1778. Click on GAEL to search. While there are some civil registrations for Bordeaux, most are on the website of the Bordeaux municipal archives.

(37) Indre-et-LoireCapital: Tours. Online: Parish registers, ten-year indices, land records, old post cards and records of wills filed, military conscription lists. NEW: Land registers for Chinon, Loches and Tours from 1800 to 1955.

(38) IsèreCapital: Grenoble. Much improved! Online: Ten-year indices, parish and civil registrations to 1892, census returns to 1906, military conscription lists from 1856 to 1921, scans of WWI family records, treasury records from the 13th to the 15th centuries.

(39) JuraCapital: Lons-le-Saunier. Excellent progress! Online: maps, postcards, historic photographs, parish and civil registrations from the 16th century through 1892, ten-year indices from 1802-1932, marriage banns and dispensation requests from the 18th century, military conscription lists from 1867-1921, registers of notarial records from 1694-1791, census returns from 1800 to 1911. This has to be one of the most helpful archives in the country.

(40) LandesCapital: Mont-de-Marsan. Lots of problems with this site, and many efforts to repair them, finally leading to a new site. Online: Parish and civil registrations, military recruitment lists, maps, town meeting minute books.

(43) Haute-LoireCapital: Le Puy-en-Velay. Online: Nice website which has parish and civil registrations, ten-year indices to same, military conscription lists, census returns, registers of notarial records. There is much, much more here than can be listed, so explore this site.

(44) Loire-AtlantiqueCapital: Nantes. Online: Parish registers, civil registers, censuses, land records, maps, old post cards, notarial records, military enlistment registers, WITH a surname index to them! Do not waste your time contacting by post or e-mail, as they brusquely refuse to be of any help at all.

(45) LoiretCapital: Orléans. Online: Civil registrations from 1833 to 1902 are gradually being put online. About one third of all communes have been added. However, there are some that will never be online, for they were destroyed during the Second World War. Many communes have their own websites with their parish and civil registrations found online there. Nice new website, much improved!

(46) LotCapital: Cahors. Online: Parish and civil registrations to 1902, including clerk's copies, census records, succession tables, military registers. This site has had some trouble but seems to be working properly as of November 2012.

(47) Lot-et-GaronneCapital: Agen. Much improved! Online now: civil registrations of the 19th century, census returns, many maps and land records, photographs, old post cards, unique funds of local history and customs, and the recordings of the accounts of some Spanish refugees.

(48) LozèreCapital: Mende. An all new website! Online: the parish and civil registers from the 17th century to 1902, photographs, maps, post cards, town histories, insinuations. Unusually, the municipal archives of the capitol city are at the same site. Nice little bit of cooperation, that.

(50) MancheCapital: Saint-Lô. Online: Historic maps, parish and civil registrations and ten-year indices, military conscription lists. Click on moteur de recherche, then on état civil. There is a nifty little video explaining how to use the search engine. Paris registrations from 1533 to 1906 for some towns have been indexed on FamilySearch.

(53) MayenneCapital: Laval. Online: parish and civil registers from the 16th century to 1882, ten-year indices, a data base created by volunteers of the details from the marriages of the 19th century, military registers, census lists from 1836 to 1906, land records, transcriptions of marginal notes from the parish registers. Mayenne is acknowledged as the gold standard of departmental archives online.

(54) Meurthe-et-MoselleCapital: Nancy. Online: parish and civil registers up to 1882, land records, military recruitment lists from 1887-1921. NEW: Census returns from 1872 to 1936.

(59) NordCapital: Lille. Online: Ten-year indices, parish and civil registrations, military recruitment lists, land records, 1906 census. If you are researching people from the capital, check the website of the Archives municipales de Lille at archives.lille.fr

(60) OiseCapital: Beauvais. Online: old post cards, parish maps, parish and civil registers, censuses, military registers. It is necessary to register with the site; this is free.

(62) Pas-de-CalaisCapital: Arras. Online: Lots of advice, plus ten-year indices to parish and civil registrations up to 1912, census records from 1820 to 1886, military recruitment records through 1921, land records.

(63) Puy-de-DômeCapital: Clermont-Ferrand. Online: All parish and civil records, a wonderful collection of land registry files, images of clerical seals and finding aids, census returns, maps, military conscription lists from 1859 through 1921. Nice new website.

(65) Haute-PyrénéesCapital: Tarbes. Online: Cahiers de doléances, census returns, military recruitment lists, maps, affidavits. The city of Tarbes has put up its parish and civil registers from 1611 to 1909 on www.archives.tarbes.fr. NEW: Parish registers from 1620 to 1792. Soon to enable collaborative indexing. Civil registrations from 1792 to 1915 are expected to be online in January of 2017.

(67) Bas-RhinCapital: Strasbourg. Online: parish and civil registrations and census records, now up to 1912. Also a very interesting discussion of an early 19th century manuscript of a history of Jews in Alsace, by Jacob Meyer. A new website has just been launched.

(68) Haut-RhinCapital: Colmar. Nice new website. Online: the heraldic devices for each commune, a list of those who died in the two World Wars, a list of all of the mairies (town halls), civil registrations from 1793 to 1892, ten-year indices and lists of Jewish names, and the census of 1866.

(69) Rhône Capital: Lyon. Online: Censuses from 1836, parish and civil registrations from 1527, military recruitment registers, maps, indices to notarial records, a very large collection on orphans. Collaborative indexing of both registrations and censuses is making this site incredibly useful. Rhône is the first department to allow the images of their ten-year indices and of their parish and civil registrations to appear on www.genealogie.com, though why you would pay there when you can get it free here is a mystery. For researching your ancestors from Lyon, see also http://www.archives-lyon.fr/archives/

(70) Haute-SaôneCapital: Vesoul. Online: Land records, census records, civil and parish registrations, conscription registers, bureaux de succession registers. Exceedingly helpful staff. Ten-year indices for many communes can be found on the website of the local genealogy group, Serv@nc'nautes :
www.servancnaute.fr

(71) Saône-et-LoireCapital: Mâcon. Online: land records, ten-year indices, parish and civil registers to 1902, censuses from 1836 to 1901, cahiers de doléances, succession tables, post cards, and a nice facility to see all that is available for each town. NEW: Indices to notarial records from 1790 to 1958.

(73) SavoieCapital: Chambéry. Online : maps, some ten-year indices, census records from the 16th to 20th centuries, parish and civil registers from 1501 to 1793 and from 1815 to 1860. Also: some old newspapers, indices to maps, posters, etc.

(74) Haute-SavoieCapital: Annecy. Online: NEW! Parish and civil registrations, censuses and military conscriptions from 1860 to 1940, and maps.

(75) ParisOnline: index cards to the surviving and reconstructed parish and civil registers to 1860, birth registrations from 1860 to 1912, marriage registrations from 1860 to 1940, death registrations from 1860 to 1986, military recruitment registers from 1875-1909; lists of the first names of children accepted into care from 1742-1909, ten-year indices for the civil registrations from 1860 to 1984. Beautiful website. An agreement has been signed to digitise the microfilm of the "reconstituted" parish and civil registrations prior to 1860 one day.

(76) Seine-MaritimeCapital: Rouen. Parish and civil registrations up to 1912 and in some cases up to 1935. Promised soon are maps. Passenger lists of French ships sailing from Le Havre are now online.

(78) Yvelines and the old Seine et OiseCapital: Versailles. Online: ten-year indices, parish and civil registrations to 1912 (to 1937 for some towns), military recruitment lists, censuses, land records, cahiers de doléances, community monographs (histories), remarkable indices to 114 towns in the arrondissement of Versailles civil registrations covering the years from 1843 to 1912 . Indices to notarial records dating from 1575 to 1899.NEW! Land ownership records -- matrices cadastrales.

(81) TarnCapital: Albi. Online: some parish registers, civil registers, ten-year indices, land records. It is necessary to register to use the site.

(82) Tarn-et-GaronneCapital: Montauban. Online: Ten-year indices, civil and parish registrations dating back to 1590; military recruitment lists, with alphabetic indices for some years.

(83) VarCapital: Toulon. Online: land records, census returns, parish and civil registrations, ten-year indices, medieval notarial records, architectural records, cahiers de doléances, records about the liberation of Var during WWII, finding aids, a "genealogy database", an index to military recruitment lists from 1887 to 1921 and transcriptions of more than a million pages from the register of land sales. Constantly being updated.

(85) VendéeCapital: La-Roche-sur-Yon. Online: parish and civil registers, censuses, notarial records, land records, old post cards, faire parts, notarial minutes and délibérations municipales, the World War I soldiers from the Vendée. Sadly, these archives have suffered two floods in 2016; the website explains the consequences in great detail. NEW: a database of 13,700 names of members of religious houses from the 18th century to 1903.

(86) VienneCapital: Poitiers. Online: parish and civil registers (now up to 1912), land records, the military registrations from 1867-1908, census lists (collaborative indexing in progress), tables of inheritance and probate records. Interesting: A collection of notes on cards made during the 1950s extracting further information on Protestants, abandoned children and more. NEW: notarial records!

(88) VosgesCapital: Épinal. Parish registers from 1526, civil registers to 1905, ten-year indices, censuses for the years from 1886 to 1906. NEW: military recruitment lists, land records from 1807 to 1913, and town histories (monographs des communes).

(89) YonneCapital: Auxerre. Online: parish and civil registers. Census records, and now military lists from 1867 through the First World War.

(90) Territoire de BelfortCapital: Belfort. A very nice site with plenty online: parish and civil registrations, censuses, military registrations, and historic maps. Additionally, local archivists have created an excellent site of indexed data from the parish and civil registrations. It is a bilingual site:
http://lisa90.org

(91) EssonneCapital: Évry. Online: Parish and civil registers, censuses, historic maps, and 184 village and town histories written for the 1900 Paris Expo, as well as indices to notaires' minutes.

(92) Hauts-de-SeineCapital: Nanterre. Online: maps (also for the old department of Seine from 1930 and for Seine-et-Oise from 1960); ten-year indices to the civil registrations through 1932 (but for one town); census records from 1891 to 1911, civil registrations for all towns from 1793 to 1918.

(93) Seine-Saint-DenisCapital: Bobigny. Online: no genealogical records are online, but there are lots of postcards and photos.

(95) Val-d'OiseCapital: Cergy-Pontoise. Online: Parish registrations from the 16th century to 1792, civil registrations from 1793-1900, ten-year indices, and census returns from 1817 to 1975, indices to probate records of Argenteuil from the 17th century to 1914, old newspapers.

(971) GuadeloupeCapital: Basse-Terre. NEW! Online: Civil registrations and military conscription lists. Site still under construction but very nice.

(972) MartiniqueCapital: Fort-de-France. This is actually the website of BNPM - The Banque Numérique des Patrimoines Martiniquais. Online: the actes d'individualité of freed slaves, 1848-1851, military conscription lists from 1889 to 1921. NEW: many, many new registers concerning the slave populations from 1770 to 1899.

(973) GuyaneCapital: Cayenne. Online: finding aids only. Preparation to put parish and civil registrations online is under way. There is an excellent list of links to other research resources.

(974) La RéunionCapital: Saint-Denis. Online: no records are online, but there is a nice new site for the archives.

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